Victorious men: qualitative case studies of 13 full-time mature male students aged 40-59 at Victoria University

Abstract

'Victorious Men' research project is presented after a series of case study investigations into 13 men aged 40-59 studying full-time at Victoria University. It is a springboard project from research done in 1999, where all students 40+ enrolled at Victoria were surveyed via a postal questionnaire. The 13 men were interviewed face to face using a semi-structured interview schedule between April -August of 2001. The schedule presented open questions in a life cycle framework for the purposes of encouraging respondents to contribute data in a story telling narrative. The research was guided by the question of why these men became full-time students at the stage of mid and later life. The literature about men in this age range studying full-time in universities is scarce, and research has mainly been orientated in a psycho-social framework. Most knowledge about mature university students has been gained through the experiences of women. In addition to documenting the literature my thesis discusses the data to emerge from 'Going For It' which is the report from the 1999 Victoria University research about their 40+ students. The findings from my smaller project suggested in the main three factors. Firstly, the 13 men had diverse life experiences, and for seven men these had included times that were adverse, for some adversity had extending into the period whilst they studied. Unstable family relationships and the instances of multi-dependent drug use were two of several themes to emerge. Secondly, the 11 younger men had come to university primarily so they would have more interesting employment opportunities as older men. In contrast the two men 55 plus had become full-time students for reasons of interest following workplace redundancy. They did not expect a full-time job once graduating. And thirdly at the time of leaving school most men did not have a university entrance qualification. Two men gained postgraduate degrees in these early years but most men suggested it was not necessary, nor expected within their families, that they would achieve a level of education beyond secondary school. Eight men enjoyed rewarding jobs, and economic prosperity prior to their time at Victoria. The findings are linked to currently policy issues namely age discrimination in the labour market, and a New Zealand education policy called 'special' admission. I conclude that 'special' admission is an important age related policy for men in the forty plus age group because it offers equal opportunities for academic endeavour on a basis other than educational history. This thesis also suggests that the relationship between education and the role modelling of men in families' is deserving of further investigation.